Who did it to you..Roundtable Discussion with Dr James Jones and King Williams

Never did I imagine that I would find myself in a situation that would closely reflect an episode of The Boondock; however, that is just where I found myself a few days ago as I attempted to perform one of the most mundane tasks known to man, pumping gas.

After pulling up to the pump, I stepped out of my vehicle, paid for my gas and proceeded to fill up the gas tank at an extremely busy station with approximately forty pumps. If he were there, Huey Freeman would tell you that it was at that moment that my “Nigga moment” began.

Many of you may be wondering what exactly is a “Nigga Moment.” In the words of Huey Freeman, a “Nigga Moment” is “A moment in which ignorance overwhelms the mind of an otherwise logical Black male; causing him to act in an illogical, self-destructive manner, i.e. like a Nigga.”

  In February 1865, Martin R. Delany was commissioned as major of infantry and ordered to recruit an “Armee d’Afrique” in South Carolina. But the end of the war cut short the project. Delany, however, continued to work in the South, serving for three years in the Freedmen’s Bureau. In this capacity, he delivered a speech to a meeting of freedmen and women at St. Helena Island, South Carolina, in July 1865. No report of the speech appeared in the contemporary press, but an account is in the files of the Freedmen’s Bureau in the National Archives.